How to Make Better Decisions

In my 20’s, I found myself making really bad decisions with my life. My emotions were ruling me and I couldn’t figure out why everything sucked so much.

I was drinking heavily, getting together with insane women and going to work 3 hours late. I found myself eating chocolate and drinking tons of coffee to stay awake. Then I bought a car that I couldn’t afford.

Suddenly I found myself unable to sleep and having heart palpitations at night. I went to the doctor and he put me on anti-anxiety medication. Things were pretty much… “a shit.”

So I decided I needed to examine the decisions I was making in my life. I did a very simple exercise that helped me get clear about what I was deciding to do and why I was making the decision. That gave me the insight to make better decisions in the future.

Here’s what I did. First, I started by writing down every big decision I had made in recent months. I then wrote why I made the decision and what the outcome was.

Then, I told myself

“NO DECISION MAKING UNTIL I WRITE IT DOWN!

I would write the options I had and why I was choosing a particular option.
I would then allow myself to actually make the decision and not beat myself up over the outcome.

We MUST make decisions! We cannot let ourselves get paralyzed by too many options or fear of the unknown.

The final step of this process was putting time on my schedule every month to revisit decisions and evaluate how they worked out in retrospect. I would see my bad decisions and why I chose to make them. I would see my good decisions and I would see why I chose to make them.

Eventually this gave me a great deal of clarity about what kind of thinking got me into trouble and which types of decisions I needed help with.

If you’re having trouble deciding on a career, try to strengthen your decision making skills using this method.

Whatever you do, make a decision. If you never make a decision, you will be stuck forever and unable to move forward. Break free from your fear!

I love your blogs. I can tell I’ve been letting my mind get lazy and it’s nice to ask it a question once in a while that gives it a chance to stretch.
Decisions. Decisions. Decisions. Making a decision about which of my decisions I should decide to write about.
Still with me?
Sorry, the sentence popped into my head and I couldn’t resist. My problem with making decisions is not out of fear, at least not completely. My biggest hurdle is over thinking and over complicating something that should be fairly straight forward and simple.
For example, every time I sit down to search for a job, or tweak my resume, I waste a HUGE amount of time wandering the Internet for tips and tricks and reading articles like “What to avoid saying at an interview,” “How to tell if they’re going to hire,” and “Top 10 high paying jobs that don’t require a degree.” This leads me down so many rabbit holes (ooo, look! Shiny!) that more often than not, when I look up from the screen I’m surprised to find I’m not in Wonderland.
I over complicate by demanding both perfection and uniqueness from myself. But, can something unique be perfect and still be considered unique? I can’t seem to help but make a short task take longer, and, sadly, with my short attention span I don’t often even fini